At its State Delegates Council meeting held on December 4 in Sydney, the NSW Greens unanimously endorsed the following proposal:
That the Greens NSW call upon all Australians and the Australian government to boycott Israeli goods, trading and military arrangements, and sporting, cultural and academic events as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel's occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territory, the siege of Gaza and imprisonment of 1.5 million people, and Israel's institution of a system of apartheid, by endorsing the following actions:
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statement, December 7.
Defend Wikileaks and Julian Assange!
Australia should break the military alliance with US!
βThe Australian government should defend and support Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange, and their efforts to expose the lies, duplicities and outright crimes of the US government and its alliesβ, said Peter Boyle, national convener of the Socialist Alliance.
βWe condemn the Australian government for collaborating with the American government in hunting Julian Assange down.
Iniyan and Ravi (names have been changed to protect their identities) are Tamil asylum seekers currently imprisoned at Villawood detention centre. Both detainees use art to show the oppression of Tamils in their homeland of Sri Lanka.
In May 2009, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were defeated by the Sri Lankan army. Though the war is ended the persecution of Tamils continues. Iniyan and Ravi fled for their lives as they were being hunted by Sri Lankan government forces and paramilitaries, for suspicion of supporting the LTTE.
John Pilger was interviewed by ABC Radio Australia on December 3 & 6.
Pilgerβs latest documentary The War You DonβT See, on the role of the media to be released soon, will also feature an interview with Assange. Visit www.johnpilger.com for more information.
Despite efforts by teachers, the Australian Education Union (AEU) leadership prevented a motion in support of Melbourneβs only Aboriginal school from being put to the AEU state council. A speaker from the College was also denied the opportunity to address AEU Council.
AEU councilor Mary Merkenich said she was disappointed that AEU councilors didnβt get a chance to hear that the Ballerrt Mooroop College in Glenroy is under threat and why its school community has been organising a community sit-in in the school gymnasium.
Laurel Walker and Vanna Lockwood, teachers at St Peters Community Preschool, are involved in the Independent Education Union's campaign for pay parity for early childhood teachers.
Lockwood told ΒιΆΉΣ³» Weekly: "Current scientific research on the development of the brain advocates the importance of a child's early years. Four-year university trained teachers are choosing not to work in early childhood because of the low pay and low status of the profession.
Those who counselled against holding a national election in Haiti in the midst of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis will take no comfort in the debacle it became.
Our thoughts rest squarely with the tens of thousands of people afflicted with cholera, or the hundreds of thousands of earthquake victims still without shelter, clean water and hope. How much suffering could have been alleviated with the tens of million of dollars spent on a wasted electoral exercise?
Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange have made some powerful enemies. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has accused Wikileaks of putting the world in danger and Australian PM Julia Gillard has said its activities are illegal.
In the US, Wikileaks has been denounced as a terrorist organisation and there have been calls for Assange to be either prosecuted, kidnapped or simply assassinated.
Thousands gathered in Vienna and other cities across Austria on November 27 to oppose government cuts in education, heath care and family allowances, the Morning Star said on November 28.
Students, trade unionists and pensioners carried placards reading: βTake it from the richβ, and βYou want to prune the budget, we want to overturn youβ.
The government, a coalition between the Social Democrats and the conservative Peopleβs Party, is seeking to reduce public spending by β¬1.6 billion next year.
November 20 was Trans Remembrance Day. Sally Goldner, spokesperson for TransGender Victoria, gave the following speech at the 3000-strong marriage equality rally held in Melbourne that day.
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Trans Remembrance Day started to mark the violent death of Rita Hester, a transgender African American woman who was murdered in Boston on November 28, 1998. Prejudice against trans people comes from the same evil seed as any form of prejudice β and all manifestations are totally unacceptable.
Anti-war activists salute Wikileaksβ courage and determination in exposing the lies about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the ruthlessness with which the biggest imperial power β the US β seeks to maintain its global dominance.
A new report from the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) casts doubt on the ability of current government and corporate policy to meet its goal of βclosing the gapβ between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal unemployment.
The CAEPR report looks at the goals and achievements of two private-sector initiatives: the Australian Employment Covenant and Generation One.
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